Grilled Octopus Salad with Black-eyed Peas and Linguiça (Mild Portuguese Sausage)

This deceptively easy salad combines ready-to-eat octopus, black-eyed peas and linguiça in a 30-minute dish that would take hours to make from scratch. But no one has to know that. It’s perfect for a late spring or summer gathering outdoors, and hearty enough to serve alone as a light lunch, or as part of aContinue reading “Grilled Octopus Salad with Black-eyed Peas and Linguiça (Mild Portuguese Sausage)”

Sweet Basmati Rice with Date Syrup and Orange Blossom Water

This recipe is inspired by Muhammar, a rice dish from Bahrain, where it’s also known as “Pearl Diver’s Rice.” Early Bahraini pearl divers discovered eating this aromatic rice fortified with date syrup and butter enabled them to better withstand the physiological demands of free diving at great depths for extended periods of time.1 Although it’sContinue reading “Sweet Basmati Rice with Date Syrup and Orange Blossom Water”

Piadina Romagnola

Since Tifosi won’t be attending F1’s Italian Grand Prix at Imola, we’ll settle for imagining a picnic at the track, with a lunch of Piadina Romagnola and a refreshing bottle of Lambrusco while watching the race from our living room floor instead. (Jump to recipe). Piadina, or Piada is a rustic flatbread with a long historyContinue reading “Piadina Romagnola”

Winter Bean Stew with Sweet Potato & Kale

If mother nature exists, I’m convinced she hordes snow all winter just to dump it all on us in February.  I love the snow, but in New York City, fluffy white powder turns to grey sludge in a matter of hours.  Today’s snow has just turned to freezing rain, so it’s pretty gross out there.   In thisContinue reading “Winter Bean Stew with Sweet Potato & Kale”

Mulligatawny Soup Two Ways

I can’t remember the last time I ate Mulligatawny soup, but I’ve had this craving, like I’ve been craving a lot of nostalgic comfort foods lately.  Maybe it’s anxiety around the pandemic and uncertainty about our collective economic future, but I find myself eating more and more like I did in college, building meals around inexpensiveContinue reading “Mulligatawny Soup Two Ways”